On the hottest day so far this year, the students took to the campus’ agricultural fields to pick citrus, prune vineyards, and weed patches of onion, cabbage and lettuce.

The event, entitled Be a Farm Worker for a Day, was designed to give students a taste of labor-intensive farm work and to honor Chavez, the civil-rights leader and co-founder of the United Farm Workers who died in 1993.

“It makes you appreciate – everything you see out here takes a lot of effort,” said Tyler Harvey, a freshman from Ramona. “It takes a lot to feed people. You take it for granted.”

The event was organized by the university’s Cesar E. Chavez Center for Higher Education. The center’s coordinator, Lorena Marquez, said she plans to make this an annual event.

“We wanted to create an experience for students to give them an idea of what farm workers do day in and day out,” Marquez said.

Priscilla Eguirre, an intern at the center, said the event helps students answer the question, “Why do we get the day off, you know?”

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